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Wednesday, October 10
Upcoming WoW patch 2.3 changes
Poster : Alex Mars1:00 PM
There is a big patch coming down the pipe for WoW with some major changes to the game.

As many of you already know we\'ve been working on changes designed to improve various aspects of leveling for those making their way to level 60. These improvements, available in patch 2.3 will come in many forms and should significantly contribute to a more fluid and enjoyable leveling experience .

Read the full post here.

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Saturday, Augus') document.write('t 4
Wrath of the Lich King: New Expansion for World of Warcraft
Poster : Alex Mars9:33 AM
Blizzard has announced the next expansion for WoW: Wrath of the Lich King.

New Features:

Master the necromantic powers of the Death Knight - World of Warcraft\'s first Her') document.write('o class.

Quest to level 80, gaining potent new abilities and talents along the way.

Learn the craft of spell augmentation with the new Inscription profession.

Brave the harsh new continent of Northrend, the icy domain of the Lich King.

Engage in epic siege warfare, deploying mighty siege engines to lay waste to destructible buildings in your path.

Transform your hero\'s look with new character-customization options, including new hairstyles and da') document.write('nces.

Explore perilous new dungeons filled with some of the deadliest creatures -- and greatest treasures -- on Azeroth.

Official Announcement

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Tuesday, April 24
Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar Launch Day (General MMOG News)
Poster : Alex Mars1:26 PM
Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar, the online game based on the mother of all fantasy intellectual properties, launched this morning. So far the launch has gone quite smoothly, although there are entry queues on some of the more populated servers.

Join the discussion on the launch of LotRO in ') document.write('our MMOG forums.



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Thursday, January 25
Lord of the Rings Online Launch Date Announced (General MMOG News)
Poster : Alex Mars11:32 AM
The New York Times has an article announcing the 24 April 2007 release date for LotRO. The game is in beta currently, with a stress test weekend schedu') document.write('led for this upcoming weekend. The game has a long development history, starting out as a game called Middle Earth Online and having gone through several development houses before getting to this point.

If you pre-order LotRO you can get a special pricing deal, either $9.99 per month or a lifetime pass for $199 (A year of other games at 14.99 per month adds up to $179.88).

NY Times

LotRO Main Page



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Sunday, January 7
Server Splits: The Whining Reaches A New Pitch On The Official Forums
Poster : Alex Mars1:35 PM
A new post from the WoW devs surface') document.write('d on the offical forums yesterday and the response page count is up to 22 as I post this. The cause of the uproar? This post:

We are in the process of testing a functionality that allows us to split an existing realm into two new realms. This functionality may become necessary should the total population of a realm reach maximum player capacity. During this test we plan to split the Hellfire beta realm. For further information, please read the Realm Split FAQ listed below.
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Read the full post here.

I\'ve read some of the thread, at great personal risk of causing my eyes to bleed, and have discovered what the problem is: the players are stupid. They want nothing to interfere with their server community but they also want strict immigration controls that prevent new players from driving a servers population too high (except, presumably, new players ') document.write('who are already their friends). In addition, no amount of notice time in advance will be sufficient, because someone might be trapped underground for months after a mine cave-in and they might end up being sent to a different server than the rest of their friends. Meanwhile, in other threads, the whining about server queues being too long and the complaints that Blizzard is not doing anything about overcrowded servers continues unabated.

To be fair, Blizzard has joined in the stupidit') document.write('y. If a player fails to make a choice of split server versions a guilded character will be sent to the same server as the guildmaster. This, as it stands, is not a bad idea. However, any unguilded characters could be split up and sent to different servers. Blizzard knows that the vast majority of players use their unguilded characters for bank and craft mules but rather than do the smart thing and make this part of their plan by sending all characters to the same server they go ahead and thr') document.write('eaten to scatter them between two servers. If someone had set out to intentionally stir up the forums and make their customers even more irrational they couldn\'t have done better. Then, at the end of the server split faq, they demonstrated a severe lack of understanding of their customer base by saying that if a player isn\'t happy with the results of a forced server split they can always use the paid transfer service to move again. Not their best work, the volitile combination of customer and') document.write(' company stupidity has brought forth a monumental forum thread filled with drama, pathos, cannibalism, and threats to quit.

All I can say is: \"can I have your stuff\"?

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Thursday, December 21
WoW closes over 100K accounts for cheating and gold farming
Poster : Alex Mars11:30 PM
In our continued efforts ') document.write('to combat cheating in World of Warcraft, more than 105,000 accounts were closed and over 12 million gold was removed from the game economies in Europe, Korea, and the US in the month of November. The closed accounts were associated with activities that violate World of Warcraft\'s Terms of Use, such as using third-party programs that allow cheating, and farming gold and items. These types of activities can severely impact the economy of a realm and the overall game enjoyment for all players.<') document.write('br>
Read the whole post here.

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Wednesday, December 13
LotRO Developer Chat at Stratics (General MMOG News)
Poster : Alex Mars11:31 PM
There was a chat over at Stratics the other d') document.write('ay and the following information came out:

Read the chat log here

Join the discussion in our General MMOG Forum

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Monday, December 4
WoW Patch 2.0 and How Not To Look Stupid
Poster : Alex Mars8:08 PM
Tomorrow, 05 December 2006, will introduce the 2.0 patch to the live servers. This will be a major patch with changes to PvP Honour, the Looking For Groups process, new talents, and Arena Combat. Scheduled downtime is planned to run from 1 a.m. tomorrow morning until 1 p.m. tomorrow afternoon.

From the WoW Under Development page:

Patch 2.0 (\"Before the Storm') document.write('\")

This patch will include an all new Honor System and brand new talents for every class. It will also be the last major content patch released before World of Warcraft\'s upcoming expansion, The Burning Crusade!

Revamped PvP Honor System - This new reward system will allow players to accumulate honor points that can be spent like currency to purchase weapons, armor, and various other items beneficial for player-vs.-player progression.

New Talents - Each class will now') document.write(' have access to all-new talents in each of their three talent trees.

Looking For Group Tool - This new tool is designed to assist players in finding groups for instanced dungeons and quests.

Arena Skirmishes - Players will be able to queue for small-group, gladiatorial combat matches by speaking to the Battlemasters throughout the world.

Here at WoW Catacombs we want to take this opportunity to help those who sit in the back of the room not paying attention to n') document.write('ot look like idiots tomorrow.

1) Downtime is planned to run for 12 hours, from 1 a.m. to 1 p.m., so don\'t go to a forum and ask why you can\'t log into the game.

2) Downtime is planned to run for 12 hours, from 1 a.m. to 1 p.m., so it will probably run longer. The clever player will not plan to play WoW at all tomorrow afternoon. While you have some free time take a moment to say hello to family members that you usually ignore.

3) Everyone will be trying to get the pa') document.write('tch at once, so expect download delays.

4) This is a major content patch, expect problems to pop up and complicate your life. The servers will probably be taken down tomorrow afternoon or evening to fix the problem (or problems) introduced in the patch.

5) Old addons/UI mods will not work with the new patch due to programming changes, so going to a forum or chat channel to ask why your old addons don\'t work will probably earn you well deserved abuse. Start looking now ') document.write('for addons that have been modified to work with the new patch.

Discuss the new 2.0 patch in our WoW Forum, or ask stupid questions so we can turn loose rabid animals to rip the flesh from your bones.

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